A funny thing happened to South Korea’s march toward total domination of the cellphone market: it ran into its own business model, on a much larger scale.

A decade or so ago, back when Samsung was No. 5 in the global market, members read here that it would soon become No. 1. Well, as anyone following the company’s financials and press will already be aware, Samsung – and fellow South Korean handset makers LG and, in a different way, Pantech – has just run into a buzz saw called China.